July 19, 2008

It’s Saturday, it’s sultry, it’s superb hammock season, so don’t expect lengthy punditry today from the f/k/a Gang — and don’t expect us to come over to cut your lawn. Here are a few quickies for those attached to their computers this weekend and needing some breathless diversion.

brand this! Over at Ed’s Blawg Review, I see that Blawg Review #169 will be hosted on Monday, July 21, by Whisper, a weblog about brand strategy (which, honest, they call B.S.) — and which is “founded on one big idea: ‘The key to any effective marketing, branding or advertising effort is to change and take ownership of the conversation’.” For a contrarian perspective on branding and lawyers (that continues to believe clients are king and should own the conversation, while lawyers are mere shield-bearing esquires), you might want to check out a few posts from the early days of ethicalEsq:

“Brand LEX” (April 3, 2004) “None of this is reassuring or inspiring — earning your client’s trust so that you can charge him and her more. Rather non-fiducial, don’t you think?“

“Another Lap Around Law Firm Branding” (April 11, 2004) “How does the law client benefit from this expensive branding campaign? Is getting “a friend” who shares your love of motor-racing advantageous to the “upset” personal injury client? The DUI defendant?”

update (July 21, 2008): For a good list of last week’s best blawg posts, see the thoughtful Blawg Review #169 at Whisper, where f/k/a got two pointers and a nice compliment, despite our curmudgeonly stance on law firm branding. To their query of how this baby boomer “gets all the energy for his creative poetry and erudite punditry,” I can only offer these tips: Borrow lots of haiku from your friends; take lot of naps; don’t have much of a life.

Environmental Inspiration: Read “Visionary of the Visayan Sea” (Harvard Law Bulletin, Summer 2008), to learn about the decades of work (often despite physical danger) by Philippine lawyer Antonio Oposa, fighting to protect marine habitat. In 1993, he helped win the right to sue on behalf of future generations, in the case Minors Oposa v. Factoran, where the high court said:

“Needless to say, every generation has a responsibility to the next to preserve that rhythm and harmony for the full enjoyment of a balanced and healthful ecology. Put a little differently, the minors’ assertion of their right to a sound environment constitutes, at the same time, the performance of their obligations to ensure the protection of that right for the generations to come.”

Who’s A Narcissist? With the label being thrown around a lot lately, today’s New York Times looks at what it takes to be a true narcissist, “Here’s Looking at Me, Kid” (July 20, 2008) In case you didn’t already know:

“Many people are condescending and self-involved, but they may not necessarily be narcissistic. Therapists say that to affix the label, the trait or the diagnosis, one must spend considerable time with the person. Determining that someone is a narcissist, Professor Ames added, ‘is not something you can gauge from television’.”

What did we learn in Law School? Prof. Daryl Levinson won the Sacks-Freund Teaching Award this year at Harvard Law School. See “On accepting Sacks Freund Award, Levinson reminds students what they learned in law school” (June 12, 2008). Prof. Levinson says he appreciates “brilliant, demanding, opinionated, contrarian, and relentless” law students. In case they forgot what they had learned, Levinson offered a “review session” of the “ten ideas that explain virtually all of law.” Click that link to watch a webcast of Levinson’s Class Day remarks. The article tells us:

Levinson proceeded to help the graduates “recollect [the] three years of knowledge” they learned in law school. Joking that “class participation is how [we] stretch these few minutes of material out to three years,” he touched upon some of the major themes of the law, including rules vs. standards, collective action problems, and agency.

2 Comments

[...] David Giacalone at f/k/a anticipates today’s theme, if there is one—lawyers and law firm branding: Over at Ed’s Blawg Review, I see that Blawg Review #169 will be hosted on Monday, July 21, by Whisper, a weblog about brand strategy (which, honest, they call B.S.) — and which is “founded on one big idea: ‘The key to any effective marketing, branding or advertising effort is to change and take ownership of the conversation’.” For a contrarian perspective on branding and lawyers, you might want to check out a few posts from the early days of ethicalEsq. [...]